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12 Jun 2015, 13:06
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Hi,
I have a question about my line of reasoning for the study plan I have in mind.
I've spent 2 weeks (30.5 hrs) studying and acquainting myself with the GMAT. I have scored 650 on the GMATPREP 1, and 620 on MGMAT CAT1.
I've worked through all the MGMAT Foundations of Math drills, and skimmed through the other MGMAT strategy books.
During my most recent MGMAT CAT1:
I spent 13 minutes on 2 questions early in the Quant section, an action that messed up my entire score.
I skipped questions and rushed through others in a panic to catch up on time, but I couldn't recover from the initial timing mistake.
In the review of the test, I was able to correctly solve the problems I had skipped during the test. This I attribute to a few things:
1. Calm conditions of review vs. test pressure
2. Absence of panic
3. Absence of test fatigue
Therefore, I conclude that I am able to solve these problems outside of that initial timing mistake.
In the both Verbal and Quant, I was able to solve 700-800 level questions. It just took about 30 seconds more than the suggested time to answer.
From all this analysis, I conclude that I have the ability to answer 700-800 level questions, but I am too slow in answering.
Therefore, adjusting my timing strategy (skipping difficult Quant questions to make time for questions I can solve quickly) and drilling lots of practice questions to improve speed and increase exposure will allow me to answer 650-700 level questions more quickly and accurately and leave more time to figure out 700-800 level questions.
Is the study plan based on a logical line of reasoning?
Feedback is very much appreciated.
Thanks!
Brandon
I have a question about my line of reasoning for the study plan I have in mind.
I've spent 2 weeks (30.5 hrs) studying and acquainting myself with the GMAT. I have scored 650 on the GMATPREP 1, and 620 on MGMAT CAT1.
I've worked through all the MGMAT Foundations of Math drills, and skimmed through the other MGMAT strategy books.
During my most recent MGMAT CAT1:
I spent 13 minutes on 2 questions early in the Quant section, an action that messed up my entire score.
I skipped questions and rushed through others in a panic to catch up on time, but I couldn't recover from the initial timing mistake.
In the review of the test, I was able to correctly solve the problems I had skipped during the test. This I attribute to a few things:
1. Calm conditions of review vs. test pressure
2. Absence of panic
3. Absence of test fatigue
Therefore, I conclude that I am able to solve these problems outside of that initial timing mistake.
In the both Verbal and Quant, I was able to solve 700-800 level questions. It just took about 30 seconds more than the suggested time to answer.
From all this analysis, I conclude that I have the ability to answer 700-800 level questions, but I am too slow in answering.
Therefore, adjusting my timing strategy (skipping difficult Quant questions to make time for questions I can solve quickly) and drilling lots of practice questions to improve speed and increase exposure will allow me to answer 650-700 level questions more quickly and accurately and leave more time to figure out 700-800 level questions.
Is the study plan based on a logical line of reasoning?
Feedback is very much appreciated.
Thanks!
Brandon
12 Jun 2015, 17:12
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Bookmarks
If you're trying to evaluate a pacing strategy, always (always! - I can't emphasize this enough) base that strategy on real GMAT questions, and never on prep company questions or company tests. Some prep company questions are 'hard' only because they are long or complicated. Real GMAT questions are rarely like that. On real GMAT questions, once you 'see' what to do, the solution itself is usually quick. It's finding the way into the problem that can be tricky, and if you don't see a way in within the first minute, it's usually true that you're just not seeing what the problem is about. In that situation, extra time often doesn't help, and test takers often dramatically overestimate the value of extra time. Controlled studies of the GRE (which is fairly similar to the GMAT) have shown that giving test takers 50% extra time on the math section has almost no effect on scores.
So on the real test, if you don't see a path to a solution within about a minute, you really should be taking your best guess and moving on. It's very important to understand that adaptive tests like the GMAT are very forgiving of mistakes on hard questions, but unforgiving of mistakes on easy ones. That has a few consequences - most importantly, you shouldn't be concerned if you can't answer every question. You're really not expected to - the algorithm will be trying to give you questions which you will find hard to answer. Don't worry if you need to guess at a few things. And you also don't want to find yourself with so little time remaining that you're forced to guess at some random, and potentially easy, questions late in the test, because that can hurt your score quite a lot. Instead, save time by guessing at hard questions earlier on.
You should definitely plan to practice your pacing strategy using official tests - if you were to retake your previous test, and rather than invest 13 minutes in two questions, instead you had moved on from each question after one minute, you almost certainly would have had a much better score, not only because you would have had more time for questions you'd know how to solve, but also because your performance would have been less affected by time pressure. Hopefully that will help with some of the issues you've identified (pressure, panic, fatigue) - those are really important to address, and you can compound those issues if you think you need to answer almost every question correctly.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'drills', but if you mean repeatedly solving standard question types, that can be helpful to increase your speed and accuracy on medium level questions. If there are some standard problem types you don't feel comfortable solving now, then those drills should be the first thing you do. But hard questions are hard because they are not standard. To give yourself the best chance to answer the highest level questions, you should be working on gaining a deeper understanding of concepts, so you're more able to quickly recognize what a question is fundamentally about, and so you're more likely to have a way to get into a problem that doesn't match up exactly with questions you've studied before.
So on the real test, if you don't see a path to a solution within about a minute, you really should be taking your best guess and moving on. It's very important to understand that adaptive tests like the GMAT are very forgiving of mistakes on hard questions, but unforgiving of mistakes on easy ones. That has a few consequences - most importantly, you shouldn't be concerned if you can't answer every question. You're really not expected to - the algorithm will be trying to give you questions which you will find hard to answer. Don't worry if you need to guess at a few things. And you also don't want to find yourself with so little time remaining that you're forced to guess at some random, and potentially easy, questions late in the test, because that can hurt your score quite a lot. Instead, save time by guessing at hard questions earlier on.
You should definitely plan to practice your pacing strategy using official tests - if you were to retake your previous test, and rather than invest 13 minutes in two questions, instead you had moved on from each question after one minute, you almost certainly would have had a much better score, not only because you would have had more time for questions you'd know how to solve, but also because your performance would have been less affected by time pressure. Hopefully that will help with some of the issues you've identified (pressure, panic, fatigue) - those are really important to address, and you can compound those issues if you think you need to answer almost every question correctly.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'drills', but if you mean repeatedly solving standard question types, that can be helpful to increase your speed and accuracy on medium level questions. If there are some standard problem types you don't feel comfortable solving now, then those drills should be the first thing you do. But hard questions are hard because they are not standard. To give yourself the best chance to answer the highest level questions, you should be working on gaining a deeper understanding of concepts, so you're more able to quickly recognize what a question is fundamentally about, and so you're more likely to have a way to get into a problem that doesn't match up exactly with questions you've studied before.
14 Jun 2015, 16:01
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Thanks for a well-thought out answer.
To confirm:
Always work on pacing with GMAT-like questions.
Guess after 1 minute if I am stuck on a question.
Do a lot of practice problems to increase speed and accuracy of medium level questions.
Understand concepts thoroughly to be able to do hard level questions.
I'm going to work my way through the MGMAT strategy guides in order to gain a deeper understanding of concepts.
By doing a lot of problems that test these concepts, I will deepen my understanding of these concepts (to be able to solve high level problems), and increase speed and accuracy (for medium level problems).
To confirm:
Always work on pacing with GMAT-like questions.
Guess after 1 minute if I am stuck on a question.
Do a lot of practice problems to increase speed and accuracy of medium level questions.
Understand concepts thoroughly to be able to do hard level questions.
I'm going to work my way through the MGMAT strategy guides in order to gain a deeper understanding of concepts.
By doing a lot of problems that test these concepts, I will deepen my understanding of these concepts (to be able to solve high level problems), and increase speed and accuracy (for medium level problems).
